Greetings from the Houston PREP Director!  It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the Houston Pre-freshman Enrichment Program (PREP), a summer enrichment program for middle and high school students hosted by the College of Sciences and Technology at the University of Houston-Downtown. Houston PREP began in the Summer of 1989, so we are very excited to celebrate our 30th year of operation in the Summer of 2019.

One of the goals of Houston PREP is to serve as a focal point for activities that help produce a pipeline of better-qualified students entering college in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) to help ensure that the United States maintains its leadership in research and development in science and technology.   In addition, Houston PREP is designed to encourage students in economically and socially disadvantaged population groups into careers in these fields.

Programs such as Houston PREP are making a difference in producing exceptional students who will go on to become leaders in engineering, mathematics, and science. The people and organizations that support Houston PREP are the backbones of this development. Hence, we extend our sincerest thanks to all that are involved, and we strive to continue our efforts in educating and encouraging young minds.

Houston PREP is part of the successful TexPREP initiative of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). During 28 years of existence, we have enrolled more than 6,000 students in the program. In our most recent follow-up survey of college-age PREP participants, of those who responded, their high school graduation rate is 99.9%. In this surveyed group, 94% are college students or college graduates; over 49% of them are enrolled in STEM fields.